MANUKAU AND WAIKATO TRANSIT.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XII, Issue 842, 24 July 1855, Page 3

MANUKAU AND WAIKATO TRANSIT.

Iy our remailc? a^co npinyin; tho able report of Messrs. Mason, Siminon.and O'li'ferty, on this important subject, we stated that — The proposed lino of i'rra vav will be 11 j- mil but thie itWeid of b?ins a disadvantage, i" a gr-Mt re-co-nmend ition ; thpextiabngth will add inuvi-el value to x rre.ir oxtoit of land -in<bj.i s > •lri.-h « > that the Ti.imwiv, although nominxlly costing £13,000, will in reality not co*t one fa. thing, inasmuch as this land wal s«ll for £16,000 more than it would without the Tram- i w iy. * j Upon wMch a Co:rcspon<lent of the " New Zealander," under the signature of '• An Aucklandite," writes thus :—: — Now, if that were written by the " Now Manager,"' it is high time that ho commenced reading ournpw Land IlcuUtions, and the New Zealand Constitution Act. But if it were wiitten bv any " Old Hand," of which it betrays strong intern ll c\ idenoe, he ought to he ashamed of cndfMYOiuins: to le.id people astray : for all " old hands" know right well that eo.mtty lands are sold at a fixed price of I*^ per aeie, and tint consequently, were the Tramway finished this moment, the 2(>,000 ai res reported to be available would not be likely to realise on« fmhing hnyond £13,000. out of which sum the General Go'vernn.ent gets a first and very pret'y puking, so that the province would not, and could not, acquire any more than a small proportion of the proceeds. In answer to these very ignorant or very deceiving remarks it is only necessary to call attention to the Bth clause of the Land Regulations, which provides that " all town land, suburban land, and rural land shall be sold by auctiox," at an upset price to be fixed by the Government ; and we repeat our statement, that if the adjoining land be so sold, as ir ought to be, it will produce £16,000 more than it would have done without such lirfe of Tramway We may, at the same time, take the opportunity of remarking upon another misstatemont which the " Kew Zealander" has repeated over and over again, namely, that £4000 had been proposed by the Superintendent to the Provincial Council for a Tramway between the Manukau and the Awaroa, in total ignorance of the cost or the requirement* of the place ; whereas the fact is, that a plan, with sections, of the work, and estimates of the cost, had been prepared by the Deputy Surveyor-General, and was ready to be laid before the Council so soon as the item on the Estimates should have been under discussion. But the Council never reached that length ; they never sought the information, for the simple reason that it did not suit their purpose to do so — that purpose being much better served by the creation of an opportunity to complain of the want of it. ' So very far from the Superintendent going recklessly to work, and expending money without first making sure of the propriety and expediency of the outlay, he rather appears to have -acted l with an extreme degree of caution, — so much so that, instead of at once ordering the expenditure of the £700 which had been voted to clear out the Awaroa, before venturing to begin that work, he originated a Commission of scientific gentlemen to report upon the practicability and expediency of the undertaking ; and the result is now shown to be, that such expenditure would be something worse than simply throwing the money away, as it would cause even the destruction of the navigation of the river. The report of that Commission not only points out the imperfection of the Awaroa transit, but shows where a thoroughly available and inexpensive line of Tramway may be laid down. ' We would only make another observation upon the Report of Messrs. Mason, Simpson, and O' Rafferty,— that a very large po/tionof its merits, to our mind, consists not so much in the beneficial line of road they have pointed out, as in the saving of the Province from loss by commencing enormously expensive and comparatively useless works at a wrong place. The necessity for obtaining Reports by duly qualified persons upon expensive and important works before attempting to undertake their construction is now abundantly proved, and the information now obtained is not likely, to be lost upon the community. In conclusion, we cordially coincide with "An Aucklandite" that " it is lamentable that a public question cannot be discussed without an insinuation of private, personal motives," though how

such a sentiment can be reconciled with his letter rather puzzles our philosophy.

j From the " Notice to Subscribers" it) another column, it will WeenW >-cen th.it> the vari^ns Me^a^es which were laid by the Superintendent b'fnre I the Provincial Council, durins; their lato 1 , l with the opinions on the flirferont inafttirs sub- ! mined to the Provincial Law OiTioer, have been re-puhlishcd in the form of a pamphlet, which will assist, we think, to a right understanding by the community of the po icy which \va<- attempted | to be carried out by the present Superintendent, but which the Council found the means of thwarting. The public will now §cc the propo'-cd ! policy, and tho measures for carrying out that policy, in a shape which will enable them to form their own judgment on the matters at issue The legal " opinions" Trill be read, we doub' not, with much interest They open up some questions of great mignitude. The law, as there laid down, is either sound, or it is ui-.s >unil Tf sound, there is disclosed a fearful extent of illegality which has been allowed to cieep into <>ur institutions, t') the confusion of tho Provincial affairs, and to great injury and 10-s to private individuals at some after period, when the law shall cmic to be declared and duly administered. tt would seem, in fact, tbat the Provincial Council, on the one hand, had boon led away with the idea that they were a Parliament in vetted with supreme power to do whatever t.boy thought proper : an'l, -as a fitting counterpart, that the Governor was a sort of little king, invented with all the attributes and preiogatius of Royalty, instead of being a mere attorney of the Qicen, as he really is, and only so far, and no farther, a Representative than is permitted by his commission, or Power of Attorney, from Her Majesty. If these opinions, we say, be snmd law, they disclose a frightful state of confusion and illegality into which this Piovim-e has beni plunged by those previously in the management of its affairs ; and of their soundness we have at lc.i-t piima facie evidence in the fact that, bitterly as they have been assailed, their refutation haa not even been attempted. The pn-sent publication will therefore be of great importance in calling attention to the subject We shall forward copies to the adjoining Colonies, and also to England, in order that every possible means may be taken for proving the soundness or un&oundncss of the law as putlbrward in these opinions.